Title: Recuperative solar organic Rankine cycle - a comparative parametric analysis based on energy and exergy approaches

Authors: Samuel Nalluri; Srinath Adusumalli; Venu Mangam; Noble Sharma; Anup Kumar Tammana

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, Guntur (AP) 522503, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, Guntur (AP) 522503, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vishnu Institute of Technology, Bhimavaram (AP) 534202, India ' Skill-Lync, Chandra Reddy Layout, Bangalore (560040), India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vishnu Institute of Technology, Bhimavaram (AP) 534202, India

Abstract: Thermodynamic analysis of 1 MW r-SORC with toluene (ORC fluid), therminol VP-1 (HTF) is conducted and heat source temperature (T_HTF,in), turbine operating parameters (p_evp, T₅) are optimised for exergetic efficiency maximisation. This improved η_Sys,I and η_Sys,II by 17.87%, 179.91% respectively against study (Yang et al., 2019). Variation of ṁ_OWF, ṁ _HTF and η_Sys,I, η_Sys,II with respect to T_HTF,in are evaluated. Benefits accrued by operating r-SORC at exergy analysis based optimal conditions are: Improved performance of r-ORC, i.e., η_r-ORC,I, η_r-ORC,II by 34.90%, 5.92% and the system, i.e., η_r-Sys,I, η_r-Sys,I by 35.16%, 6.51% respectively, as against Nr-SORC (Samuel et al., 2022). ṁ_HTF decreased by 0.79% and ṁ_OWF increased by 0.05%.

Keywords: energy; exergy; solar energy; recuperative organic Rankine cycle; thermal energy storage; TES; stable power output; optimisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEX.2026.151381

International Journal of Exergy, 2026 Vol.49 No.1, pp.1 - 20

Received: 01 Nov 2024
Accepted: 06 Feb 2025
Published online: 26 Jan 2026 *

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